Blogs from Pingyao, Shanxi, China, Asia
May 24th 2012
After a week in China there is already so much to tell! It's not quite as straightforward to travel round as Japan and NZ, but we expected that. However, the people running the Beijing guesthouse and the one we stayed at in Pingyao are very friendly and helpful, so we've had trains booked for us as far as Xi'An and then hoping to fly to Jiuzhaigou National Park - didn't fancy the 18-24 hour trains!! It's unfortunate that the same can't be said for some of the other Chinese people we have met. Whether it is the endless stream of people (of all ages) asking for our photo, or those taking one anyway, or the man sitting six inches away in the train station staring straight at us and not budging regardless of what we say ... read more
April 7th 2012
The 380km drive from Datong to Pingyao should have been a relative breeze, but the whole team is exhausted and driving started to transform from pleasure to pain. Still, we reached the Ancient City of Pingyao at around 2:00pm, and the pain was soon forgotten once we saw what an incredible place this was. We checked into the Pingyao Yiguan Guesthouse within the Ancient city before heading down the colourful streets. The guesthouse has all the warmth and charm of “Old China” at only $52 a night. As for Pingyao, I would probably say that any visitor to China should make the effort to put this wonderful city on their schedule. We spent 4 hours walking the streets and sampling the street foods and then headed off for a wonderful dinner at the Tian Yuan Kui ... read more
Exactly how we imagined China would look like...
Published: December 24th 2011Asia » China » Shanxi » Pingyao
December 2nd 2011
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY !!! We took our first Chinese overnight train to Pingyao – one of the best preserved ancient cities in China. So far we only could see some modern city developments and we really wanted to see some authentic places. Hard sleeper was really good and comfy (150Y/15£ each). Could even say that it was of better standard than the Russian Platzkart that we liked so much. We arranged to stay in Harmony Guesthouse - Courtyard hotel with a lot of charm and great interior. They also provided pick up for free so we did not have to think about that when we got there early in the morning. Upgrade to a double en-suite room was a nice gift as well (100Y/10£ per room). We really got to like ... read more
Pingyao via Tiayuan...... Didn't start well but things got better!
Published: July 29th 2011Asia » China » Shanxi » Pingyao
July 28th 2011
PingYao – The Ancient city and the journey from hell so far on this trip. For the last 3 nights I have been in the Ancient city of PingYao, the guide book describes it as the best opportunity to see “the old China in action, being possibly the best preserved ancient walled city in the whole of the country.” It’s fair to say it’s an ancient city and a million miles different from Beijing which was exactly what I needed. More on the city in a moment. As you will have read from my previous blogs I was reluctantly taking an internal flight between Beijing and Pingyao because I could not get a train. Having said that a small part of me was quite relieved not to have the hassle of the trains and buses and ... read more
May 18th 2011
Voici maintenant la province du Shanxi. Pingyao et sa vieille ville fortifiée qui rapelle la Chine d'antan . . Ville très touristique, mais si on cherche un peu, on y trouve des endroits très typiques. De toute façon, on a l'impression d'y vivre au siècle dernier. Encore une fois , on vous laisse rêver devant ces photos, avant la dernière partie du blogue de la Chine qui suivra bientot: la ville Impériale Bejing (Pekin).... read more
Ladies and gentlemen we are starting our descent
Published: April 1st 2011Asia » China » Shanxi » Pingyao
April 1st 2011
Yes, I have started my descent to the bowels of China, or maybe that sounds too frightening, so I should just say I am going south again. And yes, I know I said we, but I am using the editorial we, or maybe it is the Royal we, I will leave that up to you. Before moving in a general downward direction, I reached the northern most peak of my journey at this point in time in Harbin. I say at this point in time, because I am planning on returning to north-eastern China in June. Why? Because there are a lot of nature reserves up there which I want to see but which are still closed at this time of the year. So what was the use of going up to Harbin in the first ... read more
March 9th 2011
To get to Pingyao from Beijing we took the train firstly to Taiyuan, which took around three hours; we were able to book these tickets through our hotel in Beijing. Taiyuan, being the provincial capital with Shanxi, was as hectic as you could possibly imagine, and we fast became quite the spectacle in this place, especially with what they would have probably considered excessive baggage. Before too long we were off again for the second, hour long train ride. Somehow we had acquired top level sleeper tickets for the short ride, so I craned my neck and nestled between our backpacks on the top bunk (which was quite a struggle reaching as the bunks are three tiered), so that I could be out of the way and out of view from the curious local people, who ... read more
February 11th 2011
(Delayed blog) Me and my good friend Leo headed for the ancient, walled city of Pingyao for the October national holiday. We had originally planned to travel at least one way by train, but although Leo had tried on the first day possible to buy a ticket (10 days in advance in China), by the time he got to the ticket desk, all were sold out. (touts?) So we ended up with a return ticket on China Eastern airlines from Baotou to Taiyuan from where we were going to take a bus to Pingyao. We left on the 1st of October, the National Day of China, and landed safely with an hour delay at Wusu airport. On my previous trip to Wutaishan in Shanxi province, we'd flown into the same airport, so I knew the tricks ... read more
October 31st 2010
Well, we survived our first overnight train in China. We managed to squeeze ourselves and our gear into a shaky 2-seater rickshaw that took us from our hotel to the train station in Xian. The train station was packed with people, but it was relatively easy to find the waiting area for our train since the numbers are all in english. We had two middle bunks in a 6-bed "hard-sleeper" berth. It was actually pretty comfortable and we managed to get a few hours of sleep along the way. Pingyao is a Unesco World Heritage Site and its well preserved city walls date back to 1370. That's about all we can offer for a history lesson. We stayed at a nice hostel in the centre of the old city and spent our days walking the streets, ... read more
China #11 - Lost In Translation - Signs & Smiles
Published: September 7th 2010Asia » China » Shanxi » Pingyao
August 25th 2010
One of the aspects of my China adventure that I most enjoyed was the challenge to communicate. I am rarely in a setting where I can’t find SOME language in common with my listener, but in China I found that with my 30 words of Chinese, if I could reach out 1% of the way towards communication, they gladly would leap the other 99% to bridge the gap. On one memorable tour, I "translated" into English (making it up as I went along) what the guide was mumbling into a loudspeaker - "We are now leaving the Disney-esque part of our tour and moving into an area of true natural beauty...." In a number of situations a store clerk barely saw us coming and immediately sent an employee running off to find the person in the ... read more
